A*
Vol. 19 No. 19
A meeting on land use at the Gap
Fire Hall on Tuesday evening drew
about 50 people, including a dozen
Land Use Meetings
In Gap, Quarryville
“Hojv are we going to
preserve the farmland? I
could sell my land right now,
put the money in the hank at
eight percent and make
three times as much as I’m
making as a farmer. Why
shouldn’t I sell out?” Frank
Eshelimn asked at a public
meeting on land use Tuesday
night at the Gap Fire Hall.
Eshelman is a farmer in
East Hempfield Township
and his query underlined a
basic.problem in sensible
land use planning which had
been discussed earlier by Dr.
Hays B. Gamble. Gamble is
associate director for land
and water research at Penn
State, and was one of the
speakers at the meeting,
which was sponsored by
Elizabethtown College.
Gamble said earlier that
Americans will have to
rethink their ideas about
private ownership of land.
“We think we have the right
as individuals to do with our
land whatever we want to
do,” he said. “But we must
remember that if an in
dividual-"wants to sell his
land for development, he’s
nof always acting in the best
interests of society. We’ve
got to find a balance between
the interests of society and
the rights of the individual in
land use. If we leave all land
use decisions to individuals
who sell for the highest
price, we’ll ultimately fail to
arrive at any kind of sensible
system. The only alternative
is to require some in
dividuals to give up a certain
amount of freedom so that
everybody can benefit.”
There were about 50 people
at Tuesday night’s meeting,
and about a dozen fanners in
the audience. There was
another meeting Thursday
night in the Quarryville Fire
farmers. The meeting was sponsored
by Elizabethtown College.
Hall, about the same size as
Tuesday night’s meeting,
and there’ll be a third and
final meeting Tuesday, April
In This Issue
FARM CALENDAR ' 10
Markets 2-4
Sale Register 47
Farmers Almanac 6
Classified Ads 21
Editorials ' 10
Homestead Notes 30
Home on the Range 34
Organic Living 16
Thoughts in Passing 9
Mennonite H.S.
Benefit Auction 8
Sour Colostrum Feeding 20
Manor FFA 12
Solanco FFA 18
Herr Ewe Lamb
*
Sets Sale Mark
A champion ewe lamb
from Lancaster County set a
new record last week when it
sold for $825 at the 14th
annual Ohio Dorset Sale in
Washington Court House,
Ohio. This show, felt by
many to be the most
prestigious Dorset show in
the nation, every year draws
entries from all over the U.S.
and even Canada. The
record-setting lamb, which
sold for more than any othe'r
ewe lamb in the history of
the breed, was owned by Dr.
and Mrs. Robert Herr,
Narvon RDI.
The'Herrs took six lambs
from their Nix Besser flock
along to Ohio, and all six
quahfied for Friday, March
22, show and the next day’s
sale. Only 100 sheep are
eligible and many that make
the trip to Ohio never get into
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 30, 1974
2, at the Lincoln Fire Hall in
Ephrata beginning at 7:30
p.m.
Gamble was a member of
a three-man panel at both
meetings and will appear
again in Ephrata. The other
two panel spots were filled
by ' professors from'
Elizabethtown College.
“It’s going to be difficult to
agree on guidelines for good
land use,” Gamble said
Tuesday night. “There are
so many different interests
in land. Home owners,
farmers, developers,
foresters, industrialists must
all have their viewpoints
represented.”
Dr. J. Kenneth Kreider
I Continued on Page 7|
the show ring. In all, there
were 37 rams and 67 ewes
sold.
The Nix Besser ewe went
to Galyn Heidemann, Grant
Park, 111. She’ll be shown for
two years, after which she’ll
become a brood ewe. The
ewe was a half-sister to the
champion ram at the Penn
sylvania Farm Show this
year, and a half-sister also to
the reserve champion ewe at
the Farm Show.
All the Herr sheep sold in
Ohio went to breeding flocks.
Only .one came back to 1
Pennsylvartia, a ewe which
went to Centre County. A
ram, which stood fourth in
the show, went to Michigan.
Another ewe went to Illinois,
a ram went to Ohio and West'
Virginia claimed another
ram.
Harrisburg Conference Examines . . .
Who Will Control
U.S. Agriculture?
A two-day session on the
future of agriculture
challenged a group of
several hundred Penn
sylvania farm leaders to
answer the question “Where
is agriculture going and how
will we get there?” The
meeting was sponsored by
Pennsylvania State
University and was held in
Harrisburg Wednesday and
Thursday.
On Wednesday, speakers
presented the alternatives
for agricultural control - an
independent farmer, open
market system; a corporate
system; cooperative
system; a government
administered system, or a
combination system.
Harold D. Guither, from
the University of Illinois,
assessed the current
situation and defined some of
the issues in his lead-off
presentation.
Controlling agriculture, he
said, means owning or
controlling the land and
other resources used f of food
production, and being able to
make the key decisions for
buying, selling and
producing. Those who would
control agriculture, ac
cording to Guither, must be
able to get and use the
technical information
needed to remain com
petitive, and they must be
able to buy equipment,
supplies and labor at a
reasonable cost and sell their
Mrs. Robert Herr is shown here
with the champion ewe lamb which
brought a.record $825 at last week’s
14th annual Ohio Dorset Sale* in
production at a reasonable
profit.
“Industrialization of our
food and fiber system,”
Guither noted, “is shifting
control of agriculture away
from the farm. Con
centration of control in food
manufacturing 'and
distribution is substantial,
and a rapid decline in plant
numbers has occurred.”
In '1967, according to
Guither’s figures, the eight
largest companies handling
each commodity controlled
30 percent of the value of
shipments of fluid milk, 38
percent of meat-packing
products, 46 percent of 'the
FARM
TRENDS
74 Milk Output May Dip
Milk production this year could 'total-around one
percent below 1973, according to the USDA’s latest
dairy situation report.
Output will likely remain below year-earlier levels
during the first half, although the rate of decline may
slacken from the 3 percent drop in January. Feed
prices will probably stay high into summer, but milk
prices will be well above 1973, improving the dairy
income picture. There was a good supply of dairy herd
replacements on hand at the beginning of the year
which will likely help offset the impact of herd culling
[Continued on Page 19)
Washington Court House, Ohio. Tht
show is recognized by many as th<
top Dorset show in the country.
$2.00 Per Year
flour and other grain mill
products, *76 percent of
soybean oil mill products
and 96 percent of beet sugar.
The number of food
manufacturing plants
dropped from 42,000 in the
early 1950’s to fewer than
27,000 in 1972. And four out of
five firms m the super
market industry have their
own central warehouses, or
are affiliated with a retailer
owned coop or wholesale
sponsored chain.
Because of the enormous
capital requirements for
fanning today, there is some
indication that corporate
[Continued on Page 15]
•*•%*•*••«%*•••*•*•*•■•*•*•*• •*•*•••**•*•*•••** •*•£«£t
by Dick
Wanner
I